Islanders blow lead and waste Ilya Sorokin’s heroics in loss to Devils

A loss straight from the Lane Lambert playbook and a game the Islanders could ill-afford to give away right as they were getting things back on track.

It is still five points of six — all things considered, a good three games — for the Islanders after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Devils that was on course for a 3-1 Isles victory until things went haywire in the last five minutes on Saturday night.

But it is the two points the Islanders handed to a divisional opponent that they need to learn from.

Because, once again, here were the Islanders in the last five minutes of a game that appeared on the precipice of being over, doing everything but dealing a final blow and then wondering how it could have gotten away from them.

“We need to defend better around our net,” coach Patrick Roy said after Stefan Noesen tied the game late by banking a puck off Grant Hutton’s skate in the crease before Jack Hughes won it for the Devils in overtime. “They pick up rebounds, so we gotta find a way to box them out and put our hands on those pucks and do a little bit better job.

“We can’t throw those pucks away. We gotta eat those pucks and swarm it. Kill the clock. When they pull the goalie, it’s the clock. It was 1:06 or [1:10], whatever it was [left] and you need to kill the clock. Don’t get rid of the puck. Eat the puck if you don’t have a play.”